Ely Mods Ride Again

A little piece of Ely's colourful youth culture history has just been documented in a story this week on Sabotage Times, the website launched by Loaded magazine founder James Brown. The feature tells the story of the city's mod revival in the late Seventies and early Eighties, utilising the pictures taken at the time by Karl Bedingfield of Little Downham.

"My Dad always had cameras around the house and his interest in photography encouraged me," said Karl. "I often took his camera with me in those days. I wasn't the only one of my friends who took photographs but while most of their photographs were of custom scooters, mine were of my friends and acquaintances."

Karl's pictures were seen on the Internet by the well-known journalist and editor James Brown, who asked for permission to run the photographs as a feature on the Sabotage Times website, along with an article about the heyday of the Ely Mods.

"The sight of the green parkas, scooters, Fred Perry shirts and hush puppies in Karl's pictures reminded me of the Mod Revival explosion that surrounded the group The Jam and the film Quadrophenia," says James Brown. "It was a huge high street youth movement that hit Britain after punk but one that rarely gets a mention by social historians as it was a revival and not an original movement, even though it had it's own chart bands like Secret Affair, The Lambrettas and The Chords.

"At Sabotage Times we had just enjoyed great success with pictures from another forgotten working class youth cult, the Casuals, which itself followed Mod and Skinhead," continues Brown. "The images were similar, and all the more authentic for being taken by participants and not observers. Most significantly both sets of pictures seemed to capture young Britons having a great time. I thought the pictures, although taken in and around the Ely scene, would strike a chord with a particular generation of former parka wearers around the country. We have over 200,000 unique visitors a month on Sabotage Times so there's a very good chance that Karl's pictures will reach a grateful audience."

For the photographer Karl Bedingfield, this new exposure for his pictures has come as a welcome surprise. "As the years have passed the pictures have become more important to me," explains Karl. "They capture a moment in time that was very exciting, both for my friends and for myself. Because very few photographs of the Ely mods exist, these photos make an invaluable contribution to Ely's youth culture in the early Eighties."

If any readers of Ely People have pictures and stories of their own teenage years in the city, why not share them here.

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